Chapter 8

Next mornin', we was all sittin' round the table havin' our breakfast when Charlie looks up n' says, "Willem, can I have Sue Ellen's room now. Mine don't have enough room in it."

I guess we musta' made even more noise than I thought. Well, there wasn't gonna be a better time to get things out in the open so I turned to him and said, "Charlie, now I want you to listen real careful to what I'm sayin'. Sue Ellen tells me that you and her been talkin' about this day fer some time now. Well, I guess that day has come. If she wants to move her things into my room permanent, I guess there ain't no reason you can't have her room. But here's what I want you to take to mind; what goes on in this house is our business and nobody else's, you understand me? You don't talk to nobody about our family affairs or who sleeps where or anything like that."

Charlie, he just shrugs his big shoulders and says, "Why would I, Willem? I don't know why anybody'd even care. Holy cow! You must think I'm stupid or somethin'!"

"Holy cow? Where'd you pick that up?"

"Um, kids at school say it all the time."

I laughed and shook my head. "Well, at least it ain't dirty talk. And no, I don't think you're stupid, Charlie. I'm just remindin' you to keep our family business to yourself. A lot of folks wouldn't understand about your sister movin' into my room. So, that's enough said, right?"

"Right."

About that time, Sue Ellen gets into the conversation. "I hope you boys haven't forgotten I'm sitting right here. I might have an opinion about who moves where, you know!"

Well, I guess me n' Charlie both felt properly scolded. I reached over and put my hand on her shoulder and said, "I'm sorry, honey, we didn't mean to talk around ya. Of course it's your decision. You just tell us what you want to do."

"Well, my opinion is that this is a big change in the family and I don't think we should just jump into it all at once. I think we should kind of ease into it, don't you? I mean, I don't mind you having my room, Charlie but I'd still like to have a private place of my own. I think we should give it some thought for a few days and let things just kind of, um, happen."

I nodded my head, "I think that's a real good idea, Sue Ellen. We'll give it some time."

Charlie looked a little bit disappointed but he heaved a big sigh and agreed, "Yeah, OK. But I still get first dibs on your room, Sue Ellen."

A little later over at the office, I got to thinkin' about what Sue Ellen said about us gettin' married when she graduated high school next year. And her wantin' to have a baby.

I went into her part of the office and pulled up a chair to sit next to her. I reach over and took her hand and said, "Honey, I wanna talk about a couple of things. You said somethin' about us gettin' married after high school, but I was kinda thinkin' you ought to be thinkin' about goin' off to college. Have ya give that any thought?"

"I have thought about it and I decided not to. I think it'd be a waste of my time and your money, Willem. I like doing what I'm doing right here."

Well that made me feel happy but then I felt bad about feelin' good, if ya know what I mean. I felt good that Sue Ellen wasn't gonna be goin' away but, at the same time, I felt like we was holdin' her back from bein' somethin' a lot better like a nurse or a teacher or even a doctor. We all knew she was smart enough to do whatever she wanted. "Honey, are ya sure 'cause I'd hate fer you to miss out on a college education 'cause ya felt like it was your family duty. Course, we'd miss ya while you was away but we'd get by somehow."

She leaned over and kissed me on the lips and said, "Just don't worry about it, OK? I like being a part of the family business. I'm good at running this office and I think that's pretty important, don't you?. Besides, the college isn't going anywhere. If I decide later on to do something else, I can still go. I'm pretty sure there's no age limit on college students."

"Well, like I said, it's your choice." I took a deep breath and waded into next thing I wanted to talk about. "One other thing, Sue Ellen, you said you wanted us to have a baby. Did ya mean right away?"

"Not necessarily! But you do want to have your own child don't you?"

"I've always thought of you and Charlie as my own but, sure I'd like to have a baby from my own seed. But let me say what's on my mind. You gettin' pregnant kinda scares me after what happened to your mama. I think I'd just die if somethin' happened to you too."